Las Vegas, NV – With just over 10 years in the world’s largest MMA promotion UFC middleweight Derek Brunson is back at it when he faces Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 285 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
“I just feel that’s what I’m supposed to do. Sometimes I’m kind of mad I didn’t get my title shot yet, but hey I’m still here right,” Brunson told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
Brunson (23-9) has been out of action since a knockout loss to Jared Cannonier in Feb. of last year at UFC 271. The time away hasn’t been too unpleasant for Brunson as he explained.
“I got to spend a lot of time with my kids. So yeah that’s always fun you know better than anything in life. We got that done and now we’re back to fighting,” he said.
Now he steps into the octagon against Du Plessis who isn’t an unfamiliar name to Brunson.
“It’s a guy that surging you know. I thought Jack (Hermansson) would be the next fight. I figured he would have won his fight on short, the guy took it on short notice, but that didn’t happen. So Dricus was the guy that surging, and I’m the guy that’s been here for a while,” said Brunson.
“That was the fight that made the most sense for the UFC.”
Brunson is currently sitting at #5 in the middleweight rankings even with the long layoff. In Dricus he gets an opponent five spots below him, but for the UFC vet it’s all about getting a win and going for a title shot.
“I just need a win. If I’m ultimately going to get that Michael Bisping title shot I just got to go out here and keep winning and holding my spot and be ready,” Brunson said.
Brunson has been around so long that he says Du Plessis doesn’t bring anything new that he hasn’t seen in the octagon before.
“He don’t really do anything that I haven’t seen before,” Brunson said.
“He’s a tough guy, lot of forward action, comes to fight.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Derek Brunson above. Brunson takes on Dricus Du Plessis on the main card of UFC 285 this Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
